Chapter 27
Close to midnight the following day, there was a knock on the cabin’s door. “Come in. The door is unlocked,” Quade Westmoreland called out.
Moments later, the four Steele brothers walked in.
Quade saw the surprised expression on Chance’s face and the expectant expressions on the other three.
Chance’s gaze moved from York to Quade. “We got your text. The last time all of us met at midnight was to plan Donovan’s bachelor’s party.
The only people missing are Uriel and Bronson. So, what’s going on?” Chance asked.
“Please have a seat, and we will explain everything,” York replied. Like Quade, he was standing.
Chance nodded and took a seat at the table. His brothers did so as well. “Okay, tell us what we’re all doing here. You guys look too damn serious to suit me,” Chance said, once everyone was seated.
“You’re not going to like this, but it’s serious,” Quade admitted.
“There have been some strange things going on at the lodge. York suspected something the day we all arrived, then brought me in. We started an investigation and have been working nonstop to piece things together. Finally, we have some answers.”
“What sort of investigation?” Chance asked.
It was York who answered. “An investigation into…Gary Palmer.”
The cabin got quiet, and then Chance leaned closer to the table. “What are you talking about?”
“Let’s go back to the beginning. It’ll be easier to follow,” York said.
“I was first tipped off that something was wrong when Tiffany introduced Gary to me and told him what I did for a living. He seemed to get rather nervous. That struck me as odd, so I decided to check him out. I did a facial analysis of him and discovered that Gary Palmer isn’t his real name,” York said.
“What!” Chance exclaimed.
“That shocked us as well,” Sebastian said. Both Morgan and Donovan nodded.
Chance gazed around the table at his brothers. “All of you knew about this?”
York answered. “Everyone shooting pool that first night knew. Others, like Eli, had their own suspicions about the guy. But I asked them to let me and Quade investigate, and that when we found something, we’d let everybody in on it.
Until then, they weren’t to mention anything to you.
You were too close to the situation since Tiffany is your daughter.
Besides, there might have been a good reason why Palmer was using a different name. ”
York paused for a moment, then continued. “All the guys playing pool that night agreed not to say anything, or treat Palmer any differently until I found out more about him. We all love Tiffany, and the last thing we wanted was to accuse her fiancé of wrongdoing when there wasn’t any proof.”
“And you found some wrongdoing?” Chance asked.
“Yes,” Quade said.
Chance flinched, that one word seeming to hit him in the chest like a heavy blow. “Is it because of her upcoming inheritance? Is that why Gary Palmer wants to marry my daughter?” he asked in a voice that sounded both angry and tormented at the thought.
York replied, “No.”
“No?” Sebastian, Morgan, and Donovan questioned simultaneously.
“No,” York repeated. “From our report, Palmer never intended to marry Tiffany. He intends to break off their engagement in a few months. I predict sooner than that.”
Bas stood with a steely look in his gaze and barely contained rage in his voice. “If it’s not about Tiffany’s inheritance, that means Palmer is going after the Steele Corporation. That’s why I caught him trying to get into Chance’s cottage the other day.”
Chance stared at Sebastian. “You caught Gary trying to get into my cottage and didn’t tell me?” he asked with anger in his tone.
“Calm down, Chance. He wasn’t trying to break into your cottage. He was simply headed there when I stopped him.”
Chance frowned. “When was this?”
“Christmas Eve, when everybody was in the courtyard watching the Christmas tree lighting. I’d come back to my cottage to get Susan’s gloves and saw him walking toward your cottage.
When he was just a few feet from the door, I called out to him and told him he was headed in the wrong direction.
He claimed he’d gotten lost and must have taken the wrong elevator. ”
“He told Tiffany he had an important telephone call to make,” Chance said, remembering.
“Well, he lied,” Sebastian said. “Just like he lied about getting lost and taking the wrong elevator. That’s why I got word to Donovan, Morgan, York, and Quade. We all met here on Christmas Eve night. I told everyone what happened and what I suspected.”
“Unfortunately, it was still unclear just what Palmer’s motives were,” York said. “Questions remained unanswered. Was he after Tiffany’s inheritance, or was it something related to the Steele Corporation?”
Fury poured from Chance in a heavy sigh. “So, what did your investigation reveal? You said it had nothing to do with Tiffany’s inheritance. Why would he involve Tiffany at all? She doesn’t even work for the company.”
“For revenge,” Quade said bluntly.
“Revenge?” Morgan asked angrily. “That doesn’t make sense. I don’t recall Palmer ever working for the company.”
“He didn’t.”
“Then what vendetta does he have against the Steele Corporation?” Donovan asked.
York reached across the table for the file sitting on the counter. “Around eight years ago, your company embarked on a breakthrough product that basically revolutionized the rubber industry.”
“Yes, Gleeve-Ware,” Sebastian said. “Donovan almost lost Natalie when he accused her of being a corporate spy.”
Donovan covered his face with his hand. “Don’t remind me of that, Bas.
I did almost lose her. But that made me determined to find the real corporate spy.
We knew that someone within our company was providing Devonshire Manufacturing Company with information.
They knew too much about what we were doing. ”
“That was about the same time when Jocelyn had just given birth to Susan, and I had been out of the office for a while,” Sebastian said, remembering.
“When I returned to work, Donovan approached me with his plan to catch the spy. We brought Morgan in on it, and also Juan Harris, our chemist for the project.”
Morgan smiled. “I recall we came up with a fake formula, and the spy took the bait. It was Morris Jenkins, a guy from our IT department. Cameras had been installed, and Jenkins was subsequently fired. That was unfortunate, because he was skilled at what he did and could have had a promising future with us. Please don’t tell me that Gary Palmer is some kin to Morris Jenkins. ”
“No. He’s no relation to Jenkins,” Quade assured them.
“But Gary is related to someone connected to that incident, isn’t he?” Chance asked.
“Yes,” York said.
“Who?” Morgan asked.
“Before changing his name, Gary Palmer was Robert Garrett Devonshire,” Quade said.
“Devonshire?” Sebastian asked. “Are you saying he is the son of Harry Devonshire, the CEO of the company who paid Jenkins to spy on us?”
“Yes. When you deliberately set up the spy, Jenkins passed those false formulas to Devonshire’s people.
They immediately went to work, producing what they thought would be state-of-the-art tires ahead of the Steele Corporation.
They thought they had stolen your formula, and all the success that would go with it.
Only, within months, there were global recalls, which led to lawsuits and accusations of defective products.
In a year, Devonshire Manufacturing Company had to file for bankruptcy. ”
“It wasn’t our fault he hired a spy,” Morgan said. “I felt no sympathy for him then and don’t now.”
“Neither do I,” Donovan said. “Not only did he pay someone to spy on us, but he then took what was stolen and rushed it to production without verifying anything. Crime doesn’t pay.”
“I agree,” Sebastian said.
“Palmer couldn’t have been more than a few years older than Marcus at the time,” Chance said.
“He was nineteen when his father’s company went bankrupt, and in his first year of college at Harvard.
Due to his family’s finances plummeting, he’d had to withdraw.
He took his mother’s maiden name, dropped his first name, and became Garrett Palmer.
Gary, for short,” Quade said. “The next year, using student loans, he applied to the University of California-Berkeley as Garrett Palmer.”
“And he’s blaming us for his family’s misfortunes? Honestly?” Donovan asked, curtly.
“Not just him. His father is, too. They hired a few unsavory characters with only one goal—to destroy the Steele Corporation,” York said.
“And just so you know, Morris Jenkins is part of that group. He began selling his IT skills and services to those who were inclined to dabble in crime. He’s been on the FBI watchlist for some time. ”
“And how did they plan to destroy our company?” Chance asked.
“By infiltrating the family as Tiffany’s fiancé, Palmer would have access to you…
and your computer, Chance. He intended to hack into it, get into your company’s network, then steal and leak sensitive data, as well as trade secrets.
Any correspondence between you and the government regarding the new contract was first on his list,” Quade added.
“Yesterday, he used a special code to get into your cottage while you and Kylie were in Gatlinburg. He saw the laptop on the desk, booted it up, and entered a code that bypassed the password, then breached your files and transmitted them elsewhere.”
“What the hell!” Sebastian said furiously.
Chance frowned. “Wait a minute. I didn’t leave my laptop out. It was in the safe.”